Moving image campaigns: stumbling blocks in planning and how to avoid them

Digitalization has long since arrived in television, too, and the market for digital moving images is growing steadily. Formats such as Connected TV are actually no longer a new thing. Nevertheless, there are some challenges in planning multichannel moving image campaigns for which no international standards have yet been developed that could facilitate planning and measurability. The panel “Planning and Measurement of Multichannel Motion Picture Campaigns” at the PLAY ADVERTISING SUMMIT showed which challenges we still have to face.

At the beginning of October, the PLAY ADVERTISING SUMMIT of the online marketing magazine Adzine finally took place again after a two-year break. Our Managing Director Henning Ehlert sat there on stage as a speaker in the panel “Planning and Measurement of Multichannel Motion Picture Campaigns” moderated by Oliver Migge (IMEDIAG). Together with Michael Beuth (Mediaplus Group), Michael Möller (Visoon), Christian Zimmer (Teads) and Stella Freymuth (NIELSEN MEDIA), Henning Ehlert discussed the challenges of planning moving images.

All participants agreed that measurability and thus comparability are important – both to check whether a campaign was successful and for pricing. In linear TV, there are already many possibilities for comparison (e.g., via market values). But in digital, moving image is a broad field. Due to the lack of standards, values are often compared that cannot be compared at all due to the different usage environment. Or only VTR is used as the lowest common denominator in video. But for pricing, for example, several things have to be taken into account, such as contact quality, what does the user do after contact.

Why should customers still go for CTV?

For Henning Ehlert, the key argument why advertisers should still rely on CTV, despite the lack of measurability and comparability, lies in the strategy: “If we look at reality, most of the budget is invested in daytime, although it should actually be placed in primetime with the goal of “attention”. Via CTV we can offer to have the chance of perception in a short interruption. We have had the best experience with clients who have accompanied ongoing campaigns with continuous market research. Via continuous tracking, we can look at how values such as First Choice develop and then go into evaluation with media investments.”

Digital as a base medium?

For Henning Ehlert, whether digital should be used as a basic medium depends on the target group: “Before we make the choice of media channels, we first have to look at the target group. Where is it on the move? I consider a media mix for a target group to be a bit 90s. It’s more like one media mix per different target group cluster these days.”

We need standards – just when can we realistically expect them?

While all participants agreed that common international standards are urgently needed, opinions differed on the question of whether these standards could already exist in the next few years: Michael Beuth and Michael Möller believe that there will be standards in the next two to three years, especially in the area of CTV. They see the reason for this primarily in the increasingly open market. With more market participants, the pressure to develop common standards is also growing, because it is in everyone’s interest to create comparability and to create more understanding through studies and experience.

Henning Ehlert, on the other hand, is certain that this will not happen in the near future: “In the next two to three years, there will not yet be any international standards that will make a holistic view and thus comparability of all the different channels and formats of the moving image possible. Even though especially in times of crisis, where it’s a matter of ‘how do I invest the money properly’, this should change quickly.”